


Hollow Heroes

by KeyKnows



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Conspiracy Theories, Don't Examine This Too Closely, Friendship, Gen, Government Conspiracy, Shooting Star commentary, Sort Of, Team Talon (Overwatch), i didn't do research on anything just so you know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-18
Updated: 2020-01-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:47:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22308913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KeyKnows/pseuds/KeyKnows
Summary: The base is too quiet, the fights are too easy and their live as pilots in the MEKA program is a dream come true. Yuna doesn’t buy any of it and she’s sure there’s something more going on.She’s right and she hates being so.
Relationships: Yuna "D.Mon" Lee & Hana "D.Va" Song
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	Hollow Heroes

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so this story needs explanations and you can find them in the end notes. Meanwhile, hope you enjoy this!

The base was silent as it always was. The quiet murmur of the computers that ran it, the a/c, the footsteps of a handful of soldiers on patrol, all of it was nothing but the quietness of white noise, barely breaking the heavy, peaceful silence.

Sometime before she wouldn't have noticed it or, if she did, she would've thought it a blessing: silence meant that all was well. That her and her teammates efforts had been fruitful, that this night the citizens of Seoul would sleep well, that no mechanic monster would come from the sea to terrorize their country. Silence used to taste like victory if only momentary.

Not anymore.

Yuna wasn't sure of when she started noticing the change and it first she thought it was only her perception. At first she thought she was getting paranoid, after too many fights and too many silences that didn't last, after too many victories and too many revenges.

But no, she had decided, the silence following her around the base with the same persistence of a hungry mosquito, no, it wasn't that.

It wasn't that she was on edge, that the thought of the silence coming to an end, because it always did, worried her. Rather, it was that it didn't worry her at all.

Because no matter how bad the fight was, how many times her and her teammates were shot down, no matter how many broken bones they got, they always won.

Always.

And before that was something to be proud of, something to gloat about, a tale to tell "Casino was shot down and I followed him to take out of the omnics that went to finish him; D.va and King were covering me, and Overlord was chasing down the leader, but there were too many omnics and our firepower was gone without Casino, but we pull through, at the nick of time."

They always did, at the nick of time, in the last moment, when they were surrounded and about to die. Casino would make a game changing decision, King would come up with plan b, c, z; Overlord would make an impossible shot; D.mon would hit just the most powerful omnic and D.va would think of something wild and stupid and it would work every.single.time.

And it wasn't just that, if it were, maybe she could still keep thinking with little to none modesty that they won because of how good they were. They were the best of the best, after all, they were chosen specifically for this, of course they would won every time, it was why they brought them here.

But there was the silence, ever increasing with each battle won.

When they were first brought to the base the place was always busting with activity. The base was full of soldiers and engineers and pilots, always training, always ready awaiting for the nightmares at sea to get close. They used to train along with them, wake up early in the morning and have round after round on the simulator, run a hundred laps around the compound, be the elite soldiers they were supposed to be.

But with time less and less people was at the base and less and less insistent the captain Myung was about their training. With time silence took over the base and the only noise that ever rise in it was the sound of the TV and their loud gaming sessions, of their laughter echoing in the unnatural empty hallways.

And the it would be broken by the alarm ringing, by the omnics coming from the sea and then they, and always only them, not like before when the anti-air force would aid and the pilots would get on their f 30, only they would answer to the attack.

And they would win, every time.

You had to be stupid to don't realize something was wrong. Or high with greatness.

* * *

When Hana wasn't playing, she was usually at her room listening to music in the darkness and if she wasn't there then she was at the hangar, messing around with her MEKA.

She had always been very good in robotics. Since she was a child and videogames took over her life, she got interested in both programing and robotics, always making upgrades to her computer and even more so when gaming became her profession. She did her own gaming gear, all by herself, she would say with pride at the interviews.

Now she didn't have that much time to mess around with her computer but she had lots to mess with her MEKA. At first the engineers had been indignant that she wanted to take care of it by herself, do the repairs and upgrades, but at the end she had proved she was proficient enough to do it and they had come up with a compromise. Every MEKA pilot would work with an authorized, personal engineer so there would be someone competent overlooking whatever change the pilots wanted to make, if they wanted to.

Still, Hana worked on it on her own. It was her life at risk every time she got in the MEKA, she believed she had the right then to mess with it as much as she wanted.

Right now she was on top of it. In the last fight the missiles had jammed and she had to pull off a very dangerous stunt to avoid them exploding in the MEKA when they couldn't get out: she had to stop her MEKA in the top of a building, get out and manually release them. She had gotten an earful from captain Myung but what else what she supposed to do? let them explode right in her head? Eject, lose the MEKA and then retreat? No way, Hana "D.va" Song didn't run from a fight.

And in the end it had worked, the missiles had hit the omnic leader right in its ugly red eye and they won.

They always won. Hana made sure of that.

Her personal engineer was her childhood friend Dea-Hyun, and he would usually be here helping do the repairs, but today he couldn’t make it. She was sad about that but she understood; besides it was exactly for him and everyone in the country to be able to live their normal lives that she fought.

Hana loved her country dearly, and had hated with passion the destruction the first omnics attacks had brought upon, so when she was called to duty she didn't hesitate. She would do all in her hands to ensure the prosperity of Korea. And If that meant not seeing her friends as much as she liked, well, it was a small price to pay.

Besides, it wasn't like she was alone, she had the best company a lonely gamer like her could have at the base: old rivals from Starcraft were part of her team and, of course, her old teammate Yuna 'D.mon' Lee.

She and Yuna had always had a friendly rivalry, since she met her online and they were in opposite teams and then later on when they started playing together. Hana liked Jae-Eun, Kyung-Soo and Seung-Hwa, of course, they were good friends, but D.mon was the only girl friend she had and Hana felt they had a special bond. She was like the sister she never had, never asked for, but was eternally grateful of having.

She was happy then, at seeing her enter the hangar with a big bag of cheetos and two cans of nano-cola.

"How are the repairs going?" Yuna asked her, walking a lazy stride to the MEKA.

"It's done, but I was trying to figure out a way to prevent them for jamming again." Hana answered in good spirits "But you brought me just the fuel my brain needs!" She hopped off the MEKA and caught in the air the can of cola "how's your night going?"

Hana stared for a moment at the nano-cola. It was the edition that she had advertised, an image of herself wearing a green and blue MEKA suit greeted her with a smile. There were also versions with the rest of the team, but her can was without doubt the most popular. Hana wasn't unfamiliar with fame at all, she had a lot of fans in her pro gamer days, but now the whole country cheered for her.

She smiled back at the D.va in the can, proud of herself, filled with satisfaction. She opened the can with a hiss and took a big swing. She didn't notice Yuna staring attentively at her.

"At least wash your hands," Yuna commented, casually opening her own can, that also had D.va in it "they're full of grease."

Hana shrugged.

"Whatever, lets eat," she said, carelessly cleaning her hands on her suit. She had been here for a while but it wasn't until Yuna showed up with the cheetos that she realized how hungry she was.

They got away from the MEKA, sitting in the floor with their backs leaning in a wall. The common room wasn't far, but the boys were playing there and both of them wanted the privacy, though for different reasons: Hana loved spending time with Yuna, even if it was in the most mundane of ways, perhaps especially like that; Yuna had a lot on her mind that she wanted to share with her best friend.

Hana stuffed her face with cheetos the moment the bag was open. Yuna observed her discreetly. If it wasn't because she lived here with her and had seen her in other clothes, Yuna could've sworn Hana lived in her MEKA suit. She was wearing it right now, alongside a brown jacket to fight the cold of the hangar. Yuna herself was wearing sweats pants and a hoodie.

She had asked Hana once why she wore her MEKA suit all the time, and she said she like being prepared. Yuna thought that was just half-truth. Hana had always been kind of a, well, a diva, and anyone who know her personally knew that that wasn't just a persona for her public appearances. She had been over the moon when she was allowed to design the colors of her MEKA and her suit, and she loved seeing herself in the mirror wearing it, they all knew, always catching her reflection in any superficies.

"Is something wrong?" Hana asked her, mouth half full. The corners of her lips were dirty with yellow powder.

She had caught Yuna staring at her but that wasn't what alerted her. Yuna looked troubled and probably thought she was making a great job at masking it but Hana knew her, and the way she was just slightly frowning, the measured sips to her drink, her far away gaze that was watching D.va and then it wasn't, all were obvious signs that she had something in her mind.

Yuna shook her head, to get out of her thoughts.

"No, just...," she trailed off.

Hana stared at her swallowing slowly her last mouthful. She had noticed she was weird lately, especially since the last fight.

Hana remembered clearly, when she let her teammates know what she planned on doing with the jammed missiles, D.mon had remind awfully silent. The boys told her to don't risk it, but D.mon who usually served as the voice of reason didn't say anything to stop her, or offer any alternative like she usually did.

She seemed just so...uninterested, in what could happen to D.va and in the whole fight.

She seemed uninterested in everything lately.

"Spit it out," Hana said, putting the bag of cheetos aside and cleaning her mouth with the back of her hand, uncaring of the suit "I know you have something in mind."

Yuna nodded, terrible serious from one moment to other.

"I've been thinking, Hana," she said gravely "that there's something weird going on here."

Hana frowned.

"Weird how?" She lowered her voice, suddenly it seemed they were sharing a secret.

"I've noticed something." Yuna didn't bother lowering her tone.

There was no one on the hangar but them and she was sure whoever was in charge of the security cameras wasn't paying attention, or wouldn't bother in enhancing the audio to hear them. What would they be talking about anyway? Boys? Videogames? Clothes? That was surely what the people in charge thought of them, that they were too busy living the dream and worrying themselves with silly uneventful thoughts to actually notice that all of this was a façade.

She looked at Hana, anxiously waiting for her to talk. Hana was smart, that much Yuna knew, but she was also naive and she didn't know how she would react at hearing what she had to say.

"Have you notice how empty is the base lately?" Yuna asked, it would be easier if Hana came up with her own conclusions.

"Yeah," Hana agreed "these days it seems like it's only us here."

Yuna nodded.

"Why do you think is that?"

Hana shrugged.

"I don't know, I guess they don't have much to do here."

"That's what I thought," Yuna said, thinking maybe D.va had noticed too "nothing to do because—"

"I actually asked captain Myung about it," Hana interrupted "because it's weird, isn't?"

"And what did he said?" Yuna asked anxiously at Hana's silence.

Hana turned to her and smiled slowly, the same confident, somehow haughty smile she had in the nano-cola can.

"He said there's no need for more personal here," she said, her tone going slightly higher as she spoke "since we can take care of any omnic attack."

Yuna stared at her, dumbfounded. Hana was still smiling.

"What?" was all Yuna could say.

"I know right!" Hana exclaimed, misinterpreting her friend's reaction "He said that our performance fighting the omnics had been excellent, that there's no need to waste resources here, when there're attacks happening in other places and we can take care of everything here just fine."

Hana was beaming. Of course she had noticed the base was suspiciously empty these days, furthermore, the personal here had been disappearing slowly through the months. Hana had been worried about it, because it made her feel like her team was the only thing standing between the omnics and her country, so she had taken her worries to the captain that, also, had been spending less and less time here.

The old man had eased her preoccupations. Hana believed him because, of course, her team had been winning every single fight since the moment they start fighting and, even if sometimes one or two of them stayed out of commission, the rest of them had been showed capable of handling any eventuality.

It made sense to her, that the extra hands would be needed somewhere else, when she and her team were just so damn good.

"That's what he said?" Yuna asked, still in disbelief "and you believed him?" she sounded almost accusatory.

Hana snorted, not catching her tone.

"Why wouldn't I? It's not like he was lying, we always win."

Yuna took a deep breath.

"Isn't that weird too?" she finally said, like she was sharing a terrible, shameful secret and somehow it was "that no matter how many of them come, how big or how dangerous, we always win?"

"No," Hana said, her smiled faltered a little, still not getting what Yuna was about, but she still spoke with confidence "we train hard, we do our best in every fight, of course we win."

Yuna licked her lips and turned away from Hana, making a long black curtain with her hair. Hana couldn't see her speak then, but she heard her, loud and clear.

"Isn't that weird too? We hadn't been training as much as we did at the start, most of the time we're just playing and—" Yuna interrupted herself, looking intently at the soda can in her hand "I mean, what are we even doing most of the time? Does this looks like what a soldier should do?" she held the half empty can up for Hana to see "Does this looks like a soldier's job?"

Hana's smile had dropped completely. She looked at Yuna with a serious wary expression, like she had gotten to some conclusion but didn't want to believe it still.

"I don't know if it's a soldier's job," Hana said carefully "but it is OUR job. We're not just any soldiers, just any pilots, Yuna. They chose us because we can do what others can't."

"Does that include playing to be celebrities?" Yuna asked, feeling more and more apprehensive by the second because Hana was picking a dangerous road to take the conversation.

"We're celebrities." Hana said as it was obvious "We are heroes, Yuna."

Were they? Were they really heroes? Yuna felt more like an idol than a hero with every day that passed. The fights were staggering, simple, easy to win. The interviews they usually did after the battles were repetitive, always the same questions, usually the same answers but TV loved them and the people couldn’t get enough of them.

Yuna had seen it, when people recognized her on the street, despite her best attempts at hiding, they would ask for a photo, for an autograph; little girls and boys would tell her they wanted to be like her, or any of her teammates when they grew up; people would thank her for her hard job and the sacrifices she was doing for her country but what sacrifices? It had been hard at the start, she was a gamer and suddenly she was shoved into a military facility to train and put her life on the line, but now? Now it seemed like she was just living every youth’s dream.

It was a good dream of course, but Yuna felt fervently something was wrong.

How Hana couldn't see it? Their fights barely looked like fights anymore; they made appearances in TV and internet shows; they advertised for soda, chips and Jae-Eun wasn't at the base today because he was making a stunt for a car commercial, what part of that was being a hero? What part of that was being the elite, specialist pilots they told them they were?

There had been heroes before. The men and woman at Overwatch never did the things they were told to do. They didn't win every goddamn fight.

"I don't know, Hana," Yuna finally said, getting up "I just...doesn't this feel fabricated to you?" She turned to look at her friend and didn't like much what she saw.

Hana gulped down the remnants of her nano-cola. When she was done she put the can down hastily and cleaned her mouth with the back of her hand. She looked at Yuna under her eyelashes.

"Fabricated?" Hana repeated, her expression serious but incredulous "I don't like where this is going Yuna."

"Me neither," Yuna agreed "I feel like—"

"I think I know how you feel," Hana interrupted and Yuna had the impression she was trying very hard to remain calm. "I can't believe you would say something like that just because you're jealous."

"Wh—what?" Yuna sputtered, completely losing track of the conversation.

"I get it Yuna. I mean..." she licked her lips, thinking hard on her next words "You think we didn't work hard for this? You think I didn't work hard for this? We are the best at what we do, we're keeping this country safe, that's why we're popular, and that’s why we don't need anyone else at this base, because WE are doing right. We don't need anyone else."

She didn't say it, but Yuna heard it anyway: I don't need anyone else.

And it was truth wasn't it? D.va could take care of everything by herself, she proved it time and time again in the heat of battle. Yuna had a terrible but clear revelation then, because even though all of them had a personal mechanic working for/with them to improve and repair their MEKA, Hana was the only one who knew hers personally and she was also the only one that actually worked in her MEKA.

How weird how something always seemed to fail in their own MEKA, and the boys', how weird they couldn't keep up with D.va at all.

"How does that tie to me being jealous?" Yuna asked anyway.

Hana scoffed.

"How it doesn't? Just because you think you can't do what I—what we do, doesn't mean it has to be a lie! What? Do you want your can to be the most popular? Then work harder!"

"This isn't about that, Hana," Yuna said, bewildered "can't you see how weird all of this is? If we were really, truly fighting for the safety of this country there would be, I don't know, more security here, or more security for us, how come we can just leave the base at any time we want. We don't even have a superior to report to!" Hana was smiling a humorless smile, like what she was saying was totally insane. Maybe it was, but Yuna couldn't take it anymore, she was not stupid "Even if you think you're the best goddamn pilot there ever was, do you really think you would win every fight? You were our best player too and you lost a lot! I lost a lot! Do you really think being an idol is what they called us for? I couldn't care less about what stupid can sells more, but why are we even in a soda can!" Yuna threw her can to the floor and it ricocheted somewhere to the dark corners of the hangar, filling their sudden silence with finality.

"You're being an idiot." Hana declared, finally getting up "Have some faith in me, in us, in you. We do our best out there Yuna, we give hope to this country. How can you not see that?"

Hana went to her MEKA and started messing with it again, as if Yuna wasn't there.

She even connected her phone to the computer, that was there for the MEKA, and blasted some music. Lucio's last album, Yuna noticed.

Yuna stood there for a moment but finally she retired to her room.

* * *

"I can't wait for the next episode of this soup opera" Sombra said, chuckling as she watched the screen where Hana was working on her MEKA and Yuna had just left.

"Concentrate," Reaper rasped in her ear "we didn't come here to spy on the pilots."

"¿No?" Sombra asked.

She was in the control room. Getting into the base had been boringly easy and entering the room even more so. According to her intel there should've been at least one guy posted here, watching the cameras, but there wasn't anyone at all. She didn't even need to bother with her camouflage, the base was deserted, she could probably got to the kitchen, grab some snacks and be back here without anyone noticing.

But even if there didn't seem to be anyone but the pilots, they still needed to get rid of the automatic security, and that was why Sombra was here. Disabling the alarms and automatic doors of the storage was taking more time than she would wanted and to pass the time, Sombra had enhanced the audio of the hanger camera, who knew what the two girls were talking about but maybe it could entertain her.

And boy had she been entertained. She was almost expecting the two girls to attack each other when things started to heat up, Sombra had even whistled when D.va said D.mon was jealous, but sadly, nothing of the sort happened. Reaper, hearing her commentary from the transmission, told her repeatedly to focus on the task at hand, but even he would find the whole thing interesting when she showed it to them back at headquarters.

Akande himself already had his suspicions about the omnic situation in Korea and judging by what she saw, Yuna was on the same track.

"No," Reaper growled in her ear "the security system—"

"The security system is offline," Sombra interrupted, as the holographic screen she was holding in her fingertips beeped happily "we have an estimated of fifteen minutes, which is an awful lot of time if you ask me, before the back up notices I'm messing with the system."

"We'll be done in ten. Keep me informed."

"Yeah, yeah," Sombra sat in one of the chairs and revolved lazily in it.

They were spending a hell lot of resources for an operation that a smaller team would've probably pull off, but even if Akande had suspicions he probably didn't imagine how dire the situation here actually was.

Sombra couldn't care less about what was happening in this country, but their beloved leader would have some...thoughts on the matter.

She watched with boredom at the multiple screens, nothing was happening in most of them. The only activity was in the hangar where D.va was; the common room where Overlord and King were playing and the training grounds, were D.mon was blowing off some steam. And also the car entering through the main entrance—

Sombra stood up in a hurry.

"There's a car at the entrance," Widowmaker said in her ear, her heavy accent rolling a ‘g’ that shouldn’t be there "it's the other pilot."

"Is he alone?" Reaper asked.

"It seems so."

"Sombra—"

"Yeah, I'm watching him." She said, glad that Widow had spotted him. Maybe she did need to concentrate some more. "He just parked and...yeah, he's alone, unless someone is hiding in the back seat."

Sombra watched Casino going from one screen trough another until he finally arrived to the common room. She enhanced the audio to hear what he said to the other pilots, but their conversation was irrelevant and not as interesting as the girls' had been. He finally went to his room and closed the door.

She changed her attention to the storage where Reaper, Moira and a couple of goons where dismantling a MEKA. Those weren't the ones the team used, but prototypes and previous versions. Supposedly, at some point the government had wanted to mass produce the MEKAs to have them in bases all around the country but in the end, the team here had, supposedly, been more than enough.

It would've probably been better for her to be there with them, she was the technological genius after all, but Moira was not completely foreign to mechanics and she was really good at tearing things apart (even if she wasn't that good at putting them back together). In any case, they needed to hack the security system and Sombra was the best for that job.

"It's been ten minutes," Sombra said.

"We're almost done," Reaper answered.

"You look everything but done from here."

But just as she was saying that, she saw the final pieces of the MEKA falling apart. They were using a special tool to transport it, it looked like a levitating box made of blue beams of light, a prototype courtesy of their friends at Vishkaar. They had to pull it or push it anywhere they go, but it made the transportation easy and fast; otherwise taking the MEKA in pieces would've impossible and, given that activating one and piloting was out of the question, it was the only way.

Everyone disappeared from the camera when the clock was a fourteen minutes.

"We're out," Reaper said and Sombra disconnected her software.

Then the security system of the storage was back online, like nothing had happened.

She had to stayed some more time while they rendezvous with the ship, to ensure they would leave undetected. Just ten minutes later Reaper told her they were on the point so she headed out.

Once on the ship they were on their way.

"Good job," Reaper said to everyone "we should be landing in an approximately two hours."

There was a general murmur as the goons scattered through the ship and they stayed in cockpit. Widowmaker was the designed pilot of the night.

"Wanna know what I discovered?" Sombra asked with a smile to no one in particular.

"No." Reaper said as he went and sat in the copilot seat.

"I do," Moira said with a reserved, polite smile as she took a seat too "you did seem delighted by what you found."

Sombra's smile got bigger. Moira usually humored her, in fact, she would usually humor about anyone when she wasn't working, perhaps because she liked having something to do, even if it was inane.

She wasn't one to sit idle and twiddle her thumbs.

"Have you taken a liking to gossiping?" Reaper asked. With the constant rasping sound of his voice it was hard to detect the specifics of his infliction, but Sombra guessed he wouldn't get witty with Moira.

"I just want to know what got her riled up. She appeared to be having a good time."

"Oh, you gonna have it too, listen to this."

They couldn't see him because of his mask, but still everyone could tell Reaper rolled his eyes.

Sombra dived then into a detailed tale of what happened between the two pilots, with extra commentary to make it more interesting. When she was done a pondering silence fell over her audience.

"This will be of great interest to Akande," Moira commented.

"And I guess this won't be our sole mission here," Reaper added, contemplative.

"I told you it was good," Sombra rejoiced at their reactions "what do you think, Charlotte?" She asked to Widowmaker "was it good?"

"Will that information develop in an assassination?"

"Depends on our dear leader."

"Then I don't care."

"Such a one track mind, that's what I like about you," Sombra said in good spirits.

Widow hummed.

The rest of the ride was silent.

* * *

Seung-hwa, who was in practical sense the mediator of the team, had asked Hana and Yuna, separately, what had happened between them. Both of them refused to talk.

Hana because she was still incredibly angry at Yuna. Yuna because she was still disappointed and because she didn't want to tell the rest of the team her deductions. She had the impression she would be meet with similar stances to Hana's.

She planned of telling them, of course, but her conversation with Hana had made clear she would need more than some weird, suspicious occurrences to get her point across, and it was possible they wouldn't take kindly to her suggestion that they weren't as good as they supposedly were. Jae-Eun was the only one whose arrogance resembled Hana's, but Seung-hwa and Kyung-Soo took great pride on their work too, like she herself had done, so it was in her best interest to avoid hurting susceptibilities.

So, the next few weeks, Yuna and Hana avoid each other like the plague. The rest of the team was worried and after Seung-hwa’s approach failed, it was the turn for Kyung-Soo clever mind games to try to make them speak, but that also was unsuccessful. Then Jae-kun tried a more direct confrontation but, since he didn't bother being polite, the two girls told him to fuck off.

The tension at the base was palpable but fortunately no attacks happened so they didn't had to go into battle like that...yet. That was one of the team's greatest worries regarding whatever had happened between them, that their personal affair would get the best of them when they were fighting: the three of them appealed to this fact when trying to get information but it was in vain.

Hana had seen Yuna pretty much messing around in their last battles, so she didn't think it would make a difference. Yuna didn't think none of them were in any real danger, so she couldn't care less.

Still, despite her mutual decision of not talking to each other, they were taking their silent treatment really hard.

They would usually hang out together but now, most of the time they weren't with one of the boys, they were alone and wallowing in their misery.

Dea-Hyun had come back a few days back, and he and Hana had been working on the MEKA. He had ask her about Yuna but Hana had refused to say something to him too.

It wasn't only her anger that stopped her for talking however. What Yuna said had dangerous implications and, even if Hana didn't believe in what she was saying, she understood her suspicions may as well be taken as insurrection at best, and treason at worst.

That's why she didn't tell her team about it, it was better for them to don't know in case the situation blown up. It was also the best for Dea-Hyun.

However, after weeks of not talking to Yuna the secret was eating her up. At the very least she needed advice about what to in regards of their friendship.

So, while they were working on the MEKA, all alone in the hangar, Hana decided to speak.

"Dea-Hyun," Hana called quietly from inside the MEKA, they were running some tests on the interface.

"What's up?" He asked from the computer desk "is the image blurry again?"

"No, it's...it's about Yuna."

"Oh," he said, turning on the chair to look at her. He didn't have a good visual of her inside the MEKA, but direct his gaze to where he knew her face was "what's with Yuna?"

Hana made a face, like he didn't know, though she understood his attempt to don't pressure her.

"I hate not talking to her," she said sincerely "she's my best friend and...and this is so stupid," she said stubbornly.

She didn't understand how Yuna could think something like that. How could she doubt herself like that? Doubt of the job they were doing, of the army, of the country?

"Maybe you should just talk to her," Dea-Hyun offered "I mean, you're not gonna made up if you avoid each other forever."

Of course he had a point, but Hana knew it wasn't that simple. She needed a way to convince Yuna that her thoughts were unfunded, that something like that just wasn't possible. But she couldn't think of a way how.

"It's just..." she started, choosing her words careful to don't reveal the secret "she has this crazy idea and I don't know how to make her see how damn crazy it is, I don't think I can just...talk to her. She's gonna try to convince me but what she's saying is just insane."

Dea-Hyun stayed silent for a while. He wanted to help Hana, but she was making it really hard with her cryptic speech.

"Then...maybe try to find proof that she's in the wrong? She's probably trying to find a way to prove her point too."

Possibly, but what kind of evidence could be enough to convince her? For Hana, the biggest evidence was the battles they had to fight, the omnics were restless and they were protecting the country from them, how was that no proof enough?

"Maybe," she conceded anyway. She would need to tell him the whole story if she wanted better advice "wish this was as easy as piloting—"

As she was speaking all the lights turned off. The MEKA, currently connected to the base's energy, changed to its internal battery. Just as the blackout happened, the base's back up system kicked in and the darkness was illuminated with green and red lights in the floor and some of the walls.

"What happened?" Dea-Hyun said, checking the computer.

Hana tensed inside the MEKA.

"Do you think it's an attack?" She guessed, getting into battle mode. She checked the radar, but it wasn't made to be use indoors and it showed dozens of blurry signals.

Dea-Hyun didn't answer, quickly tipping in the computer.

* * *

"The surveillance system is out," he said after a moment "but the radars are on, it doesn't appear to be any omnics nearby."

Hana hummed in acknowledge.

"I'm gonna do a check flight outside, to be sure."

"I'll contact the guards," Dea-Hyun nodded.

D.va walked with the MEKA to the edge of the hangar and took off. Everything certainly seemed to be clear, the radar didn't show any aircraft in the vicinity and, from outside, the dark base looked calm. The ocean was calm too, it was a clear night.

She made a few rounds in the perimeter. Eventually Jae-Eun and Kyung-Soo joined her in the search of...something, but after a few minutes still nothing happened.

"Where are the others?" D.va asked.

"Overlord went to the control room," King answered "I don't know where's D.mon."

"She was in the gym like an hour ago. Haven't seen her since," Casino chirped in "still no talking to her?"

"No," was D.va's dry answer.

"Maybe it was just a malfunction of the power plant," King said then to deviate the conversation. "It seems only the base is affected."

There was something about the situation that seemed suspicious to D.va but it really looked like it may be nothing more than that.

"Let's head back," she said then.

When they landed in the hangar, the lights came in again.

* * *

Yuna was hitting a sandbag when the lights went out. She was submerged in pitch black darkness, since the gym wasn't priority and didn't have back up lights.

She swept the sweat of her forehead with the back of her hand and walked towards the bench where she had put her things. She fished for her phone in the darkness turning on the flash as a makeshift lantern.

She took her bag and got out of the gym. The hallways did have back up illumination and she followed the green and red lights on the floor towards the hangar with quick steps.

She had her communicator with her and her phone, so in case something happened the team could reach her, but she still felt uneasy for the sudden light out.

The base, already silent with the lack of personal, was now quiet as a tomb and her steps echoed in the long, long hallways she had to take to get to the hangar.

She made a turn to take a shortcut, it would take her to the storage and the hangar was just a few flight of stairs from there. They were close by in case they needed spare parts.

Just when she entered the big, open space of the storage and the door closed behind her, someone grabbed her from behind.

Before she could scream a gloved hand covered her mouth. Her bag and phone fell from her hands, away from her. The same person that covered her mouth used their other hand to take her arms behind her and keep them there. She could guess it was a man, considerable taller and bigger than her.

She left herself go limp, so the man had to use more strength to hold her and bend to keep her in place. It worked and she tried to use the momentum to throw him off her. It seemed to work, as she felt him fly over her head but clearly something was wrong. He didn't hit the floor and when she tried to get up, the man was behind her again and took hold of her arms and covered her mouth. It was like he dematerialized and materialized from his place.

"There's no need to alarm." another man said somewhere in front of her, but she couldn't see him, the lights here, even the backups, were turn off. "We're not here to harm you, we simply wish to talk."

'We' he said, and she considered the possibility of more people lurking in the shadows besides the two men.

The man didn't say more, obviously waiting for her reaction. Yuna thought carefully of her possibilities, she was in communicated, no one knew she was here, and fighting back seemed unwise given her captor's strange abilities. She decided to play along, if only for the time given, hoping she could get a better chance later.

Besides, she wanted to know what this was about. She wondered with trepidation if the team was suffering similar situations.

She nodded and relaxed in the man's grasp, she had the impression these people could see her.

"Sombra, lights," said the man in front of her.

And there was light.

She blinked several times as the bright, white lights of the garage went on, and then took a look at her captors.

In front of her was a big black man with a shaved head. He was wearing an elegant white and black suit and was taking off a pair of sunglasses that she guessed were for nocturne vision.

At each side of the man were two women. One was tall and lanky, ginger and looked at her with bored, unamused eyes. She nodded politely at her. The other was dark skinned, looked small besides the two giants, younger too, and she smiled broadly with purpled colored lips.

She couldn't see the man behind her, but noticed the gloves were some kind of metallic armor, almost like claws, and she took a glance at his heavy metallic boots and had a glimpse of a worn down black gabardine.

"Release her," the black man said, and the man behind her let go of her with a grunt, taking a step back and staying there, looming over her.

"So...," Yuna said, considering escape wasn't an option still, seeing she was surrounded and everyone, except the black man, looked equipped for combat "what is this about?"

"First, I apologize for our rude manners but we couldn't find another way to meet you, miss Lee" he said in a rich, even voice, almost soothing, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible "my name is Akande and I'd like to talk you about the...circumstances, surrounding the omnic situation in your country."

"If you want military secrets I got none of that," Yuna said then "I'm just a pilot."

"And a very popular one," Akande answered "you and your team are the champions of this country."

Yuna said nothing at that.

"As I understand," Akande continued "these MEKAs and your team are the only defense this country has against the omnics that come from the fabric at the sea, is that right?"

Yuna took her time answering, wondering if there was some trick in the question but she found none. That was common knowledge.

"Yes," she confirmed.

"According to the numbers, your team has a winning rate of 95%, but those missing 5% are just from the few battles you lost at the beginning of the program." Akande made a pause to see her reaction.

Yuna composed a neutral expression and nodded, even though her heart was hammering in her chest. She nodded, signaling him to go on.

"Comparing these numbers with, let's say, Russia's, where they also face continuous omnics attack, your success ratio is above them by almost a 50%."

"I guess that says very good things about my team, doesn't it?" Yuna said, her mouth dry.

Akande smiled charmingly.

"It certainly does. We thought, as the world does, it has to do with the very interesting decision of resulting professional gamers to be the pilots of the MEKA, which technology it's certainly impressive but" he made a pause "one can't help but wonder if there is not something more at play here. Given the circumstances."

"What circumstances?" Yuna asked, still pretending she didn't know where this was going. God, she had also compare their winning rate to Russia, and America, and Egypt and everyone else and the numbers didn't make sense. She had been recollecting the information to show iy to Hana and made her see.

Obviously someone else had their eyes open.

"For example," Akande answered her "this is the third time my people had infiltrated this base."

"What?" Yuna gasped.

"Two months ago we were here to, for lack of better words, steal one of your prototypes."

Yuna looked at him dumbfounded. She knew the security at the base was lax but to think someone could sneak in and rob a MEKA, a goddamn MEKA, without anyone noticing was insane.

"And just three weeks ago we were here to get some intel. No one seemed to have notice the missing MEKA, much less the security breach."

"And why are you here now?" Yuna said, slowly losing her cool.

"We came to talk with you, miss Lee," Akande said "We think you'll be interest in what we found, we know you have your rightful suspicions about the situation."

"That's..." Yuna said, she was sweating again "that's insane."

"That's what your fellow pilot said, didn't she? Miss Song doesn't seem to understand the gravity of the situation as you do."

"What makes you say that?"

"We saw you two arguing," the girl in purple said, all smiles "we weren't here to prick in your personal business but, well, you gave us quite the show," she laughed, obviously enjoying of Yuna's flustered face.

"Sombra," Akande said with a grave tone. The girl stopped her snickering but didn't stop smiling. "It's truth," he said turning to Yuna "we have the footage of you two talking. I think you'll see, once we show you what we found, that we are in the same page."

"What do you mean?"

Akande turned to Sombra and the girl made appear a holographic screen from her fingertips. She walked towards Yuna and enlarged the screen.

"Do you wanna start with the videos or the documents?" Sombra asked her.

"Uh..." Yuna hesitated.

"Okay, the videos it is," Sombra answered herself "I doubt you wanna read the documents, too official and boring, and the videos are faster." She made a selection of at least a dozen of videos and started playing them one after the other.

Yuna watched them horror: never before had she wished so strongly to be wrong.

But no. She was right.

Akande and his people waited patiently for her to finish watching the evidence. When the last video ended, one where captain Myung and the president were talking about the omnic fabric in the ocean, the screen disappeared in a flash.

Yuna felt dizzy suddenly and took a wobbly step back, taking a hand to her forehead. She felt like throwing up.

The man behind her, who hadn’t move an inch from his position, held her surprisingly gently to keep her from falling down.

"Are you alright miss Lee?" Akande asked.

"I…" Yuna cleared her throat. She was pale as a ghost "I'm— It's, it's a lot to take in I mean, even, even if I suspected this...this is..."

"Outrageous at the very least," Akande finished for her.

She couldn't disagree. She felt tears prickling in the corners of her eyes and she closed them tightly, contorting her whole face, hoping to make them go away.

"I need to sit down," she sighed, and let herself slip to the floor. The man in black didn't stop her this time.

"I understand this is a difficult situation for you," Akande said, sitting down too. In fact everyone sat down to be at her height, "and that you may need time to process this, but we didn't come here just to show you the truth. We're here to make you a proposal."

Yuna gulped. She knew her answer even before he explained what Talon was.

* * *

Almost forty minutes had passed.

"I spoke to the guards," Dea-Hyun said when they got out of their MEKAs "they checked the power plant and nothing seemed out of order. Seung-Hwa said everything looked fine in the control room too. They're sending someone to check tomorrow anyway."

Hana nodded.

"And Yuna?"

"I haven't hear from her," Dea-Hyun said, frowning "I called her, both in her phone and her comm, but she didn't answer."

Hana frowned too. That certainly was unusual and it sent alarms ringing in her head, even though she wasn't sure why.

"I'm gonna go look for her," Hana said then "you said she was in the gym right?" Just as she was walking to the elevator, it opened it's doors revealing Yuna. She was wearing casual clothes, her hair damp and looked winded up.

"Hey," she greeted everyone.

"Yuna," Hana sighed, looking her all over, as if trying to find something out of place "where were you?"

"Sorry I...got stuck in the shower."

"What?" Jae-Eun asked then, smiling incredulously.

"Yeah I," Yuna stuttered "you know how the doors are automatic, I was taking a shower after training and when the lights went out, they didn't open."

Hana looked at her, squinting ever so slightly.

"You were in the shower for forty minutes?" Kyung-Soo intervened.

"More like standing in the darkness and slowly drying. The water stopped too. You know how the gym is not a priority spot."

Jae-Eun laughed loudly and soon Kyung-Soo followed him. Hana wasn't laughing.

"Is that what happened?" she asked, even though she had no reason to doubt her story. Hana knew the gym wasn't priority, the backup plant didn't work there, nor in the common room or in the training ground.

But there was something that didn't added up. Hana knew Yuna and she was nervous, paler than usual, the way she was holding her bag against her body so tight, as if to hang to something or protect herself.

"Yeah," Yuna said, her voice firm, normal, casual betraying nothing "Sorry for nor answering Dea-hyun but I left my bag outside the shower." She added effectively ignoring what Hana was implying.

"No problem," he said "it wasn't an emergency anyway."

Right? Hana thought.

Dea-Hyun filled Yuna in about what the guards and Seung-Hwa said and after some teasing from Kyung-Soo and Jae-Eun about her lonely time in the bathroom, everyone retired to their room.

Hana wondered how they didn't notice how skittish Yuna was, escaping to her room as soon as was possible. And even though she had no factual reason to doubt her, Hana still felt she was lying.

How curious that she looked so damn nervous after the light out, how curious she didn't took at least her phone to the shower, Hana knew she like listening to music meanwhile, and how curious that all of it happened right after her crazy conspiracy theories.

Hana shook her head. Those were stupid thoughts, just at this whole situation was stupid.

She buried herself in her bed and turned off the lights.

Stupid thoughts, she said to herself.

* * *

Yuna didn't sleep that night. She stayed awake reading the documents Sombra gave her in a USB drive; she couldn't copy them and Sombra said the drive would only work once, to don't leave any evidence.

She read the documents and the agreements, all official, with the firm and seal of the president, the captain, of every important figure in the country. She read the reports from the search teams about the fabric, about how the third attack was successful and it hadn’t produce a single omnic ever since, almost a year ago.

And still the MEKA program stayed, because, according to the papers, it was easier to control a country who was afraid, it was easier and less cruel and better have them think that their lives were in constant danger to keep them in line. And what better way to keep them entertained, away from questions and irregularities, but with a group of heroes to worship.

How convenient that Hana was already famous, how great that all of them were so charismatic and so young and so stupid!

How could they ever guess that their battles and their victories were nothing but fabricated dreams, that their grandeur was nothing but propaganda.

Yuna cried in silence while she read them all, cursed the people that had thought this up, cursed herself for being so damn naive; cursed her friends for falling for it; cursed Hana that wouldn't believe her, that would say she was jealous of her because she was high on this lie!

After she was done, she checked the usb drive and it indeed didn't work in the computer anymore. She broke it two to take some of her anger, of her frustration, and then threw it in the trash with little care.

She tried to sleep but it was impossible, and suddenly her small room was just too small. The pictures of her and her team plastered in the walls smiled at her mockingly, the medals the military had gave her looked dull and fake, because they were, and she couldn't take the sight of them.

She got up and went out of her room as quietly as possible. All the other rooms were closed, and the little signs with their names were on, indicating everyone was in their own room, probably sleeping.

Her steps were light as she advanced, as if for accident, to Hana's room. It was impossible to know if she was awake or not, the thick, metallic door didn't let out a sound. And neither let it in.

She went to the door and put her forehead against it, feeling the tears come again. She sobbed, hugging the door as if it were Hana.

Yuna told Akande she needed time, a few days at most, to make preparations, but she realized she couldn’t stand being here anymore. She wanted to go away from the lies and the deception and her own mistakes.

But she didn't want to leave her team here.

Akande didn't try to peruse her by telling here everything would be all right once she left, but instead told her of the very real consequences leaving would do. She would be seen as traitor to the country she had wanted to protect, she wouldn't be a hero, she would have to hide and live in the shadows and life as she knew it would be over.

She had asked then, almost shyly, what about her team, what about Hana. Akande said they would love to have them on their side, said he didn't like the deception they were victims of, but reminded her of her conversation with Hana and how it ended. Asked her to imagine what the others would say.

It wasn’t hard to guess.

Eventually she let go of Hana's door and came back to her room. She wrote a letter for her and then sleep finally found her, but it was not an easy rest.

* * *

The next day happened uneventfully. No one mention what happened last night, except for when a bunch of technicians came to check the power plant and the surveillance system. They asked everyone what had happened and where were they when the lights went out. Yuna stuck to her story with no problems but was hoping that, while they were checking everything, someone would notice the missing MEKA or that someone had been messing with the security system.

No one did, out of incompetence or lack of interest, Yuna didn't know and wasn't sure what answer would made her feel better or worse.

She spent the day walking aimlessly around the base.

Hana noticed her dejected mood. Before Yuna had seemed distant but focused in something else; now it looked like her mind was far, far away from the base, from her teammates and from the oncoming battles.

Hana couldn't help but think something had happened last night. She didn't get the chance to ask her.

The sun was setting when the alarm sounded.

Hana was already at the hangar when she heard it and in mere moments she was already in the air, scanning the orangish sky.

No long after Overlord, King and Casino joined her. D.mon was the last to show up.

* * *

When Yuna entered the hangar Dea-Hyun had her MEKA ready and waiting for her.

She walked towards it as slowly as she could, knowing the end of her life as she knew her was near.

"Hurry up!" Dea-Hyun urged her "they're engaging already."

She nodded to him solemnly. He saw she was clenching something in her hand but wouldn't really see the importance of it until much later.

Yuna entered her MEKA and walked, just as slowly towards the edge.

"Dea-Hyun," she called him. From here she could see the 'battle' already taking place and knowing it nothing but an elaborated play gave her the strength to go on "make me a promise will you?"

"Uhm, sure," he stuttered, not understanding why she was taking so long to join the team or where her sudden solemnity was coming from.

"Take care of Hana okay?" she said, her voice quite but firm, she had already cried too much anyway "Be there for her."

"You don't need to ask me that, but I promise you" he smiled and then, more gravely "is everything all right Yuna?"

"No, it's not," she answered sincerely

"Take care too, Dea-Hyun. It's been nice."

"Yuna what are you—?"

She took off.

"Yuna!" Dea-Hyun exclaimed. He tried to reach her on the comm but she closed his channel.

She joined her team and apologize for being late. Their usual banter started up then, even she and Hana talked like they normally would and Yuna decided she was going to enjoy this.

She was gonna play this sick game one more time and she was gonna have a good time.

The little float of 'omnics' that 'attacked' this time was composed for ten of them, two large ones and eight small ones.

D.mon made maneuvers that before she had considered too risky, she played around the 'omnics' allowed them a few free shots, knowing that nothing was gonna shut her down. That was usually Overlod's role.

Her team cheered on in her almost maniac flying and she did the same for them.

They won, of course, as they always did, the 'omnics' or what remained of them fell to the ocean. Soon a team of engineers and solders would be here to recover them, trophies of their 'victory'.

The team started to head back but D.mon stayed behind. She closed off all channels except D.va's.

"D.va," she called, in the same solemn tone she had used with Dea-Hyun.

"What's up?" D.va answered in good spirits.

“You're my best friend," she told her, clenching in her hand a small device with a purple skull on it "and I..."

"Yuna?" D.va asked concerned, floating a dozen of meters ahead of D.mon, waiting for her to return to the base.

"You're my best friend, the best gamer I know, the best pilot too and I.." Yuna went on, she sighed deeply "and I'm sorry Hana, for everything."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean...I trust you'll understand with time, I hope you'll see the truth."

"Yuna?"

"Goodbye, Hana."

Yuna put the device in the control panel of her MEKA. It made a chirping sound as it changed the usual green of the interface with purple and then her MEKA became invisible.

"Yuna?!" Hana screamed and Yuna closed that channel finally too.

* * *

There had been an attempt to content the news, to don’t let the media jump to conclusions until it the government and the military gave an official statement, but it was impossible, in this time and age, to completely stop it.

The news spread like wildfire, first on the internet, then on everywhere else. Yuna “D.mon” Lee had abandoned the MEKA program, had fled with the MEKA, had stolen from her country. Yuna Lee was a traitor, an spy, her image was removed immediately from any marketing stunt she had done, her profile didn’t longer appeared in the MEKA program’s official website, nor in the gaming pages that named her, she may as well had been dead.

And she was, in a way. Yuna had died as a hero and had come back as a member of a terrorist group. Just as the news of her treason spread outside South Korea, so came the reports of sightings from other countries, where the MEKA that was undoubtedly hers had been seen participating with the organization known as Talon.

Hana didn’t know what to think. She refused every interview on the matter and the only thing that the media got from her lips was the same rehearsed, carefully crafted answer the team had been authorized to give: “We’re sorry to don’t have Yuna between us anymore, the matter is being handle accordingly.”

The matter was, in fact, not being handle at all. There was chaos all over the base the moment the upper ups realized what had happened, they noticed the missing prototype and the security breach, and suddenly the place was busting with activity once again. They questioned the team multiple times, in pair, individually, as a group, trying to get some information on anything, on what had led Yuna to treason.

The team didn’t know, the boys were surprised, devastated, rightfully angry, and as much as they wanted to make sense to Yuna’s actions, they had no clue on what had happened and all of them, for whatever reason, didn’t tell of Hana and Yuna’s recent fight.

Hana said nothing of it to the captain, or the government agents that came to interrogate her too. They were particularly insistent with her, since she was the last to see Yuna, but Hana played perfectly the role of the ignorant, overwhelmed friend and no one questioned her further.

Hana said nothing about it, nor of the letter she found a week after this whole disaster began. It had been in her room, inside the frame of a photograph of the whole team Hana kept in her desk. Yuna had hid it there, like she knew Hana was going to look wistfully at it once she was gone.

The letter was long and it dragged on shared memories and broken promises, like Yuna hadn’t want to stop writing, and it was full of apologies and words of affection that made Hana cried quietly with her hand over her mouth. It was also an explanation, telling with nothing like pride or rejoice, but instead full of sorrow, that her suspicions had been right. She urged Hana to investigate on her own, to stop being naïve and see the truth.

Well, Hana still didn’t believe her, at all, but she was going to heed her words. She was gonna get to the bottom of this and find out what had been this so called truth that had led her best friend to go away.

She burned the letter and kept silent, and for months she found nothing.

And then, Overwatch, of what was left of it, happened.

And Hana left too. 

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so when Shooting Star came out I didn't like it much, I thought it was a waste that it stablished D.va as a very generic hero type character, or that's what I felt it did.
> 
> My brother, a big D.va fan, didn't like it either, but I was surprised when one of his main concerns turned out to be "why is D.va the only one responding to an attack? why they don't have anti-aircraft fire? why she doesn't get any back up? why is the base empty? if you know flying robots come to attack you from the sea why is your only contigency plan a group of 5 people and you don't back them up?"
> 
> And, meta-textually, as the audience, we can make a few guess on why none of that was show on a 15min video, but textually? it rises some questions and thats why i wrote this
> 
> This general idea for this was my brother's so i dedicate this fic to him, hope he likes it and you too, readers! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! Every comment will be appreciate!


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